Even if Word would be as good at conditional text, I think you should be
able to choose the tool you are comfortable with. To make you use a tool
you hate is a good way to kill your motivation.
Maybe you could meet them half way and use something more common than
InDesign for the datasheets. I don't think it's so hard to find someone
who knows FrameMaker to replace you while you are on vacation, but to
find someone who knows both FrameMaker and Indesign is a bit more difficult.
Regards,
Shmuel Wolfson
052-763-7133
On 10-Jul-12 10:24 PM, Keith Soltys wrote:
If you can't convince your boss that you need FrameMaker, you might want to take a look
at ThirtySix Software's SmartDocs. I've been using it for about six months now on a set
of large specifications. It offers reusable snippets, variables, and conditional text,
all inside Word. The interface for managing all of this is actually easier and more
efficient than FrameMaker's, as you can create "snapshots" that set all of your
variable values and conditional text settings with one click. It does require Word 2007
or later and SharePoint as a back end.
I would still prefer to use FrameMaker, just because it is more robust than
Word and faster on large documents, but SmartDocs itself is pretty solid and
hasn't given me any major problems. It's more stable than I expected given the
house of cards foundation it sits on. As always with Word, you'll want to keep
your documents cleanly formatted with styles and have a solid template to start
with.
Regards
Keith
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:framers-
[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Sgammato
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 2:04 PM
To: '[email protected]'; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Support needed!
It seems to me the safest approach is to escalate it to your manager,
explaining why your current tools are the right tools for the job. Explain how
sophisticated your docs are and why Word won't be up to the task. The
challenge would be to make the docs less sophisticated and harder to
manage as a trade-off for the suggested flexibility.
Then you could opine that the problem was not a lack of flexibility, but rather
a lack of training if the person truly needed to edit the doc at that moment,
or else possibly the original complainer simply overreacted to a perceived
blocker while you were out of the office.
Never complain to the boss - but raise the issue with clarifying information
and provide an "out" if possible. In this case, the clarifying info supports the
manager, and the out is that the original complainer is solving the wrong
problem. Redefining the problem on more favorable terms is a useful
strategy.
Good luck!
john
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:framers-
[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 3:58 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Support needed!
Dear all
Please tell me I'm not going mad or being unreasonable.
Have just come into work to find that the company which acquired us a few
months ago wants me to use Powerpoint for creating datasheets instead of
InDesign (definite) and "a more flexible tool" (Word) instead of our beloved
Framemaker (proposed).
I could cry. I am the only tech author in the company of about 100 people
and the marketing department used PP for datasheets which they say is
"adequate" for the job. This all arose on Friday when someone else needed
to edit a version of my ID files when I was on holiday. Now I come in to find:
"...For more technical documentation (e.g. product manuals) then I
understand the argument for use of a more specialist tool - but even here
we can use more flexible tools."
Such as????? I have long user guides with masses of conditional text.
Just let Word have a shot at that. In fact, they were trying to do just that
before I started this job 4 years ago - and it wasn't working.
Sorry to clog up the forum with this but I think of you all as friends who
feel
the same way about FM as I do.
How do I persuade them otherwise? In fact, it's just one person really I
think
I need to convince - not in my office.
I can just about cope with datasheets in PP but using anything other than
Frame for long user guides is unthinkable.
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